The Conscience of a Country
In December 2019, the news media published the story of a 16 year-old boy who died last May in US immigration custody. Surveillance video showed Customs and Border Protection officials lying about the cause of this boy’s death. Not only was he jailed beyond the legal time limit, he apparently did not receive care once he contracted the flu. He died in his cell of pneumonia and sepsis. This boy is not the first child to have died in US immigration custody, and to our shame, he probably won’t be the last. Border patrol officials had apparently ignored a Centers for Disease Control recommendation to give flu shots to detainees, even refusing an offer from volunteer physicians to vaccinate at no charge. This kind of depraved indifference to human life demonstrates that the current administration’s immigration policies are not about “securing our borders” or ensuring that criminals do not enter the US. In 2014 during a speech at a Conservative Political Action Conference, Donald Trump urged Republicans not to pass immigration reform, saying that immigrants would vote for Democrats and steal jobs from Americans. The first concern is far more likely to be true, given Trump’s current policies, than the latter. When politics result in life/death situations, something is terribly wrong.
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I had a already typed a comment, but apparently I must do so again. I am so sorry that the person who wrote the article is angry with President Trump, while not mentioning obama, who brought tens of thousands of moslems to this country, while bringing about a dozen Christian, whom, I am told, were later deported. Since you are so concerned about moslems, why not move to Turkey, since there are many moslems there. I’m sure they are much nicer than the mean President Trump, and, if you stay there awhile, you might even find a few people who are Armenian descendants but most of them, at least in eastern Turkey, will never admit it, since the kind moslems you are so worried about would probably discriminate against them in ways which would make the complaints you have against some Americans seem benign by comparison. This seems to be a complaint about President Trump. Did you forget that obama also tried to avoid the Armenian Genocide issue, by usually hiding out in obscure places at the April anniversity of the Genocide.
Thank you, Robert Howard!
Two quotes:
1- “All humans deserve humane treatment including those fleeing violence and misery in their home countries”.
2- ” To protect these under imminent threat of torture and death in their own countries”.
Nobody, no decent person can disagree with these two statements. In total agreement.
The issue and the problem becomes more complicated when thousands upon thousands (organized caravans) attempt to gain illegal entry to US, not because of the reasons/conditions cited above, but simply for economic reasons.
It is a sad reality, that the US today for security reasons and the safety of its citizens cannot afford to have open borders. There are no easy solutions with the right humane balance. It is a “thorny” issue . Immigration/refugee laws have to be clear, applied to all, and enforced.
Vart Adjemian
Professor Emerita MacCurdy failed to hit the ball out of the park in October, so she takes 3,667 more words to swat at the ball, with the same result.
Prof., I get it, we all get it – you don’t like Trump, despise him in fact, and believe you have good reason. OK, reasonable people can differ on these issues. My real beef is why the AW is becoming the place for your or my expressions about Trump’s immigration policies.
I would like, at the very least, to hear another opinionated person defend Trump on the issues you raise.
I don’t need woke AW. I do need articles about Armenia, Armenian history and culture, and our future.
By the way, no law enforcement agency will allow a bunch of private MDs to start injecting people in custody. That has to be done through channels. I agree that it’s a good idea. I don’t agree with the inference you draw, namely that Trump is withholding flu vaccinations because he is a racist. Maybe he is a racist, but you prove too much – Obama also held kids for a brief time, and did not vaccinate. And we ALL AGREE Obama was not a racist, amiright?
I raised this before and I raise it now: how can you equate the lawful entry of a limited number of our ancestors fleeing Genocide to the 45,000 people entering monthly now for reasons that are largely insufficient and factually false?
For that matter, why should Armenians be less in favor of enforcing the law than Mayflower Americans? By the way, Yankees gave my mom and grandparents a hard time too – does that mean all people huddling at the southern border are to be let in today?
Agree with you, too, jda. Keep the logic coming. This reminds me of the fabled person who does not make a dent in persuading others and so decides they must be deaf and says the same thing over again, only louder.
Are you back at this again? Stop pushing your leftist progressive agenda. Racism has been around for a long time and I doubt it’ll go away completely in the next 1, 000 years. Trump is not the problem for everything in this world. Much of what he says I and many others are in agreement with — perhaps racism is part of human nature. We are Armenians, don’t we feel we’re better than the Turks? I guess that makes us racist.
Trump is not the only president to try to squash recognition of the Armenian Genocide. What about Obama, Bush, Clinton? Or are you only fixated on Trump? Why haven’t the leftists tried to fix our Immigration policies? How about complaining about them.
You claim coming here legally is exceedingly difficult — how about 1 million people per year? Get your facts straight!
Bravo Michael Mirakian! Even former progressives are fed up with the New Left!
Immigrants are welcome to this country.
We admit about a million a year.
But they must apply –legally–.
Dr. MacCurdy does not seem to realize this.
Drugs, sex traffickers, and criminals come across our borders illegally.
Trump is trying to stop that. That’s all. I don’t see what’s wrong with that.
As for how illegal immigrants are treated: I believe that the vast majority are treated rather well here.
Dear Dr. MacCurdy:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/ms-13-crackdown-new-york
Please read that article about the horrible Hispanic gang known as “MS-13,” 100 of whose members were just arrested.
Tell us how you think they got into the country in the first place.
Why do so many progressives say nothing about this? Because they feel insulated from it?
Who is housing these gang members? Who are their associates? How do they all make money? Who are their victims? Are their victims other Hispanics?
Should we feel compassion for MS-13?
The middle class is in such dire straits that we can’t allow illegal immigrants to come into this country and receive jobs and benefits. It’s too much of a strain on the middle class – that has to stop. Put harsh penalties on those who try to hire illegals – no need for a silly wall. There has to be a new system of vetting everyone who comes into the country – it should be based on whether the person is fleeing a life threatening situation in their home country, personal status, it should have nothing to do with race,
Dear Dr. MacCurdy, Thank you for your eloquent and thoughtful piece. One hundred years ago this January, my grandfather’s life was turned upside down when his mother and sisters were massacred by the Turks as the French withdrew from Marash. He was one of the lucky ones who made it to America, because this country gave 80,000 Armenian genocide survivors a chance. Despite the prejudice and indignities they faced from Americans as they tried to rebuild their lives here, our poor Armenian refugee grandparents made innumerable contributions to this country that continue to enrich us all. My grandfather became a prominent dentist in NYC and an upstanding leader in his community, serving as a member of our church’s building committee and a 32nd-degree Mason and Shriner. I cannot imagine where our family would be if he was that same 15-year-old boy, with nothing to his name, trying to enter America today. I don’t have to imagine, because the answer is simple: we would not exist. Thank you for speaking up about the tragic death of that 16-year-old boy in immigration custody and the plight of today’s refugees. I hope your words motivate more Armenians to pay it forward.